That Creepy Place
by paradiso
Summary: A collection of 100-word oneshots for Sid Hammerback, featuring the rest of the team.
1. Beginnings

A/N: I've never written drabbles before, but this was fun. Sid Hammerback is arguably my favourite character from the series and the poor man doesn't get enough love (or screen time, for that matter). I googled a table of prompts for this.

--

**Beginnings**

"I hope you'll like it here." says the woman.

Sid frowns and tries to remember her name. It's something exotic, with a universal touch. Sid is torn between _Stacia _and _Amela_ when suddenly there's another name in the air.

"I'm Detective Taylor. It's good you're here. There's a body downstairs."

"Excuse him. He meant to say good morning. Didn't you Mac?" says Stella, _Right, Stella. That's it._

Sid finds his way to the autopsy room and is briefly phased by the busy atmosphere.

He holds the scalpel gently, picking things apart, and at the same time, he pulls himself together.


	2. Middles

**Middles**

"I'm telling you, it's the girlfriend."

"She has an alibi, Danny."

"She also had blood on her hands when we found her."

There's a boy whose been quieted indefinitely, unable to protest at the lightening bolts shooting back and forth between Mac and Danny.

Sid finds himself backing away, withdrawing further into his shell. Then there's silence. He can feel their eyes on him.

"Well, Sid?" Danny snaps.

"Don't drag him into this," Mac counters.

Sid shrinks back farther, trying to avoid the empty space in their arguments as though he doesn't wish sometimes to be part of them.


	3. Ends

**Ends**

"Split ends," Sid murmurs as he combs back a lock of pristine blond hair.

He reminds himself that the job is all about silencing the human within to dig blindly through a corpse. All the while he chastises himself for being so good at compartmentalizing, because as he does so, it becomes easier to forget humanity altogether and dive right into any physical horror movie.

Sid is grim. Very grim. He's not so sure about being a reaper, but he thinks that in the dim light of the room, the scalpel in his hand just barely resembles a scythe.


	4. Hours

**Hours**

The train station is two CSIs away from being completely deserted. _Say something_, Sid tell himself as he looks to the girl.

Lindsay starts, "Long night?"

"Yeah..."

A roar of wind passes them by, and Lindsay shivers.

"Isn't that your train?"

He tries to ignore just how small she looks in the empty station, but finds himself unwilling to do so. The train leaves, and Lindsay just stares as Sid takes a seat next to her on a bench. There's another hour until the next one arrives, and he thinks they're an hour away from something else as well.


	5. Days

**Days**

He wakes before his wife on a Monday morning and experiences a brief feeling of regret as he slides out of bed and walks tiredly to the bathroom. She doesn't stir as he performs his morning routine, not even when he presses a cold kiss to her cheek and heads out the door.

He expects a rush of air as he steps into the hallway, but it never comes. The air in the house is stagnant no matter where he goes. But when he opens the front door, he steps into a new day, a new light, another reason.


	6. Sorrow

**Found  
**

I'm almost offended when I find Mac Taylor doing my job. How dare he? How _can_ he? How can someone like _him_, do this job? It must be a good day. A good day. Or else he wouldn't be here, subjecting himself to this. But then, if it had to be someone stealing my thunder, I'm relieved that it's Mac. The unshakeable, the impenetrable, the-

He brushes back an auburn curl. Plucks debris from an indecipherable face.

There's a shiver in his eye when he looks up.

I'm reminded, now of all times, that they never found Claire Taylor.


	7. Lies

**Lies**

"Oh hello... St.. Stel... Lindsay!"

"That's Stella," she arched an eyebrow.

"Righ... Sheldon."

"... Oh my God, Sid. How many did you _have_?"

"Thought I'd sto'by b'fore breakfast...

"It's two in the afternoon."

"Dinner then."

He walked past her gracelessly into her apartment. Stella stood in the doorway, shocked and partially unwilling to believe what had just happened. The distinct sound of the toaster brought her from her thoughts.

She smirked and walked into the kitchen, where Sid was quite easily settling into her home for lunch.

"Mayonnaise on your sandwich?" he asked.

"You don't even drink, do you?"


	8. Sixth Sense

**Sixth Sense**

There's a faint, but ever present irony that infests the morgue, twisting between the molecules of air, content to just watch the man with the scalpel in his hand. Silent as the air is, Sid's ears can just barely pick up the tragedy in the air, the mournful wind that passes through the room with every slice he makes. Much like his colleagues, Sid doesn't hold the supernatural in any sort of regard, save for a meager one. He doesn't have the required amount of faith to cling to ghosts.

Sid Hammerback does not believe. He simply knows.


	9. Hero

**Hero**

Sid Hammerback knows that he isn't the star of anything.

He's fairly certain that it's his technique that keeps his colleagues drifting around his domain throughout the day. Then at home, he tries hard to dissolve himself, but he has a greater flair for medical examinations than he does for compartmentalization of the soul.

_It's been a long day, _he thinks, lying in bed, four hours earlier than the rest of the team.

He suspects, with his job, he is the luckiest of them all. There's no joy in being a hero. That doesn't stop him from dreaming however.


	10. White

**White**

The unforgettable moon shines bleakly, casting colourless rays into the morgue. He takes a long whiff of the sterile air, sharp and crisp with the smell of antiseptic here in this age of plastic. He surprises himself in that he stops to take a good look around himself, and realizes that it's the first time he's ever seen the morgue this late at night. His breathe comes in between short, faint intervals, and for once he's glad to take off his signature glasses and become blinded by the glow of the room.

Almost as though he's seen a ghost...


	11. Slave

**Slave**

The day is only beginning by the time Sid hangs up his lab coat. The irony of the situation only comes to his view when he catches a brief glimpse of his co-workers scurrying out of the door having changed into more urban clothing.

He allows himself a half-hour to drown himself in his tragic flaw of dissatisfaction with everything throughout the train ride home. There's a warm glow coming from his suburban home, and he can smell the scalloped potatoes. He greets his family once inside, and wonders disconcertingly, exactly which side of his life truly dominates him.


	12. Joy

a/n: I suck for not having posted this as soon as I found out that Sid joined the official cast. Oh well, at least you all know where that horrid, high-pitched squeal came from last September.

**Joy**

"Okay, Mac, what's the big surprise?" Stella asks at the end of September.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone."

"Really Mac, is that nec-"

"Promise?"

"Fine."

He looks past the glass, and Stella arches an eyebrow, "Sid? What about him?"

Mac holds out the file to her, and suddenly she has a funny feeling that he's got destiny in his hands.

"Oh my god... seriously?" her eyes light up as an idea clicks in her brain.

"Yep," he sounds patronized, but there's a ghost of smile on his lips, "Looks like we're stuck with him."


	13. Fear

**Fear**

He has never known Stella Bonasera to be fearful.

But if that's true, he wonders if he's really ever known her.

Ever so often, after hours in the lab breaking her back over a microscopic piece of evidence, she lifts her head, does a quick 360 visual sweep of her surroundings before getting back to work. She flinches without being touched, and for some reason, Sid can no longer look her in the eye.

Sick of his own awe, he pokes his head into the room and her name tumbles gratefully from his lips, "Stella?"

But she's already gone.


	14. Not Enough

**Not Enough**

"Good work today Sid."

"Nice job Sid."

"We're lucky to have you, Sid."

_You really need to change your name, Sid,_ says the ME to himself.

The praise is nice. Especially when it comes directly from the team. Hawkes always manages a nod in his direction after a particularly difficult day, Lindsay smiles every time she sees him, and Danny... well, he doesn't see much of Danny anyhow.

But these days, he muses as he pulls a starched sheet over a peroxide blond, and glimpses at Mac, standing behind the glass, observing.

These days, it's just never enough.


	15. Temptation

**Temptation**

The only thing that does surprise him about the fact that Stella Bonasera is leaning over him, her curls just barely missing his face, is the fact that she hadn't visited him earlier here, in this bed that isn't his own. In a place that reeks of antiseptic and starched sheets.

"Took you long enough," he grumbles in spite of the smile he cannot contain.

"Hey, I sent the guys to visit," she says and then, "You okay?"

"Yep," and he catches the worry etched (maybe permanently) into her face, "How's everything?"

"Good."

And he's tempted.

(To believe her.)


	16. Cold Feet

**Cold Feet**

"I do," Sid says to the mirror.

"Sid, come on," Sheldon pats his shoulder, "It's two words."

"I'm forgetful."

"You made it through med school. You'll be fine."

Sid fiddles with the sleeve of his tux and readies himself to approach the alter.

--

Stella has never been more beautiful, than in that simple white gown. He turns to face her before the priest, the congregation, and whatever God is watching. She smiles and he wants to implode with a pride and joy unique to all others.

"Who gives this bride away in holy matrimony?"

"I do."


End file.
